RPT-Oilfield housing firm's stumble may herald more oil industry pain

WILLISTON, N.D. Dec 31 (Reuters) - A nasty profit warning
and deep job cuts. A gutted capital budget, a suspended dividend
and shares tumbling by more than half on a single day.

The retrenchment at Civeo Corp, which provides
temporary housing for oilfield workers and miners, is the
most-severe symptom of pain inflicted on the oil service
industry by the slide in crude prices, and may presage similar
steps by peers.

It also exposes the transient nature of the "man camp"
business of dormitory-style temporary housing the company helped
pioneer.

Drilling, a barometer of oilfield activity, has been slowing
for weeks as producers slashed spending plans by 20 to 40
percent. Baker Hughes reported last week the U.S. land
rig count fell by 35 to 1,770 and hundreds more rigs will be
idled, hitting scores of services companies from ones renting
trailers to those repairing pumps.

The pain will spread unevenly. Companies with weaker
finances or older equipment are set to be hit sooner and harder
by the more-than 50 percent drop in crude prices since June.

Analysts and investors say Civeo's problem is that it has
spread itself geographically too thin, with not enough cash to
quickly respond to customers' needs.

The company, spun off in May from equipment maker Oil States
International Inc, has seen demand drop in Canada's oil
sands regions and in Australia, where it houses coal miners,
leaving it with little cash to expand in North Dakota's oil
counties, where it has only two facilities.
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